Mess Us Up – Jaxson Kidman Page 0,62
than ice cream, if you can’t guess by now.
As for me… I’m doing okay.
I’m in my favorite spot on the couch and that’s good enough for now.
Violet calms herself down and takes another drink.
She points at me. “Talk to me, Jolie.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I was wrong.”
“About?”
“Everything. You know how you were wrong about Liam?”
Violet frowns. “Oh. That bad?”
I shrug my shoulders. “There’s a lot you don’t know.”
Kind of like… everything…
“Don’t give me that,” she says with a laugh. “I’m not stupid, Jolie. They’re all bad guys. Mac is probably the worst. Right? And let me guess… the reality of it all caught up to both of you.”
“Yeah,” I say.
Okay, you know more than I thought.
“Oh, and of course you were fake kidnapped too…”
“Okay, Violet,” I say. “Sorry for saying there’s a lot you don’t know.”
“So what happened?” she asks. She moves next to me on the couch. “Is it just the difference in your lives or what?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Things just exploded in a bad way. My father’s been having an affair.”
“Oh… Jolie…”
“I think my mother has been doing the same. Not as long though.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Everything hit at once, Violet. My father is involved in some bad stuff. He’s going to end up in trouble. Or dead. My mother doesn’t care. And she told me to choose between her and Mac.”
“What did you do?”
“I chose Mac. Of course.”
“And then things went bad with him?”
I nod.
I swallow hard.
I don’t want to cry.
I really don’t want to cry…
Violet leans toward me and puts her head to mine. “Oh, Jolie. Fuck. That’s a shitty thing to have happen.”
“Yeah,” I whisper. “Welcome to my life.”
“Can’t you talk to your mother then?”
“Why? She’s going to do what she wants. Live her life the way she wants. I don’t want her threatening me over someone I love. Fuck that.”
“Okay, that’s a good point. Fuck that then. What about Mac?”
“What about him?”
“You know you can still talk to him, right? There’s no way he’s going to just ignore you.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “What if he does? What if this is it… for good?”
Violet inches away. “You have to know what you want then. What you’re willing to do and go through. These guys are all… I don’t know. Is it worth it?”
I don’t answer the question because the cliché thing for me to do is yell YES at Violet and then burst into tears.
So I decide to change the subject.
“Aside from that, I have to figure out what I want to do with my life.”
“So law school is done for good?”
I nod. “I don’t want it anymore. I probably didn’t even want it to begin with. It was just there. Forced on me. Now that I know the truth, I don’t want it.”
“So take some time off and enjoy life,” Violet says. “If you can’t live here, stay with me. We’ll live together. We’ll find a place together.”
“And, what, just live off of…”
“Who cares?” Violet asks. “We’ve earned it.”
I laughed. “We’ve earned it?”
“I don’t know. Screw it. Let’s have some fun. We can go somewhere else. Start over. Find a new beach. Wear skimpy clothes on the beach and enjoy guys that want one thing from us because we only want one thing right back.”
“That sounds like what you want, Violet.”
“I’m just giving suggestions,” she says. She pauses for a second and then looks at me. “I think I’m drunk.”
“I think you are too.”
“No… I think I’m…” She swallows hard and looks around. Then she stands up. “Yeah…”
“What’s wrong?”
She touches her stomach. “The ice cream. I think it’s bad.”
“The ice cream is fine,” I say. “You’re drunk. And you’re getting sick, aren’t you?”
“Will you come with me?” Violet asks. “I’m afraid to throw up alone.”
“Sure,” I say.
I stand up.
The room sways back and forth.
Violet grabs my hand. “Oh, hurry up, Jolie. I have about ten seconds until things get bad…”
I steady my feet and my focus and I get Violet to the bathroom.
She groans before moving to her knees before the toilet.
I gently touch her hair and pull it back and hold it out of the way as she groans again and then throws up.
I turn my head and shut my eyes.
The sound and the smell alone are enough that my stomach starts teasing me it’s going to do the same.
When the first round is over, Violet groans again.
“I hate myself.”
“Of course you do,” I say. “But you’re okay, Violet.”
“I don’t feel okay,” she says. “I’m ruining your night.”
I laugh. “No, you’re